Voter turnout second lowest in NZ history

10 Nov 2026

Politics

Now You Know, season two, episode 83

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In this year's general election, roughly 1.2 million New Zealanders who could vote, didn’t. Robbie Nicol breaks down some of the reasons why.

According to early estimates from the Electoral Commission, New Zealand is on track to have its second lowest voter turnout in history. Roughly 1.2 million eligible voters did not participate in the 2026 general election. That's about 200,000 more than 2023.

While more people made ordinary votes during the 12 days of advance voting, ordinary votes on election day were down. The number of special votes fell by roughly a third. Experts say this is due to the government's electoral changes, which prevented people from enrolling during the voting period.

Filmed and edited by Isaiah Tour.
Written and presented by Robbie Nicol.
Made with the support of NZ On Air.

Episodes

A black-and-white cut-out image of Robbie Nicol holding a bar chart. The bar on the left is higher than the bar on the right.

Voter turnout second lowest in NZ history

In this year's general election, roughly 1.2 million New Zealanders who could vote, didn’t. Robbie Nicol breaks down some of the reasons why.

Now You Know10 Nov 2026

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On an abstract orange background. Cut-out black-and-white images of Christopher Luxon, Qiulae Wong and Chris Hipkins.

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A cut-out black-and-white image of Robbie Nicol on an abstract orange background. He is holding a graph of an average of the last four published polls.

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